More than a year after the historic sentencing of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his appeal to overturn his second-degree murder conviction over the death of George Floyd.
Chauvin’s attorneys argued that he did not receive a fair trial because of judge and jury bias — specifically that jurors may have been afraid to not convict Chauvin because of the political climate in Minneapolis at the time.
However, the high court didn’t appear to find those arguments convincing. Though the court did not provide a comment, its decision not to hear the appeal means that Chauvin’s sentence and his two-plus-decade conviction will stand.
In June 2021, Chauvin was sentenced to 22 and half years in prison for murdering Floyd, whose death sparked a massive racial justice movement during the summer 2020. His sentencing was seen by many as a profound victory since police officers who kill unarmed Black Americans are often not convicted.
Chauvin infamously kneeled on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes and did not remove his knee for a full minute after Floyd lost consciousness. Those nine-plus minutes became a rallying cry for protesters across the world calling for an end to police brutality.